Tuesday, December 30, 2014

nightbirds

Labelle gave us the funky truth with this glammed out disco marmalade. The group had formed when rival girlgroups the Ordettes from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania joined forces with the Del-Capris from nearby Trenton, New Jersey. "Patsy" Holt and Sundray Tucker from the Ordettes convinced Nona Hendryx and Sarah Dash from the Del-Capris to become Ordettes and the new ensemble became a sensation. The ten year old Tucker's grades were suffering so she left to be replaced by college student Cindy Birdsong. The other girls were still in their early teens. As The Bluebelles, they had a top twenty hit with "I Sold My Heart To The Junkman" in 1962. Shortly thereafter, Holt was given her stage name LaBelle by Newtown Records president Harold Robinson to avoid a lawsuit from another label over the name of the group and they became Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles. The quartet had a couple of top forty hits ("Down the Aisle (The Wedding Song)" and "You'll Never Walk Alone") before Birdsong left in 1967 to join The Supremes. The remaining trio moved to London and Warner Bros. Records with new manager Vicki Wickham, who advised them to reinvent themselves as Labelle, Their groundbreaking fusion of rock and soul struggled to find success over several albums: 'Labelle'and 'Moon Shadow' on Warner Bros.; 'Gonna Take a Miracle' on Columbia with Laura Nyro; and 'Pressure Cookin''on RCA. After opening for the Rolling Stones, they switched to CBS Records subsidiary Epic and went to New Orleans to record with producer Allen Toussaint at Sea-Saint Studios.